BNSF crude cars spur $5 billion safety spat

A push by Warren Buffett’s railroad to boost oil-shipment safety is meeting resistance from Hess Corp. and other companies that say the plan would mean a surge in costs and force them to scrap thousands of tank cars. A series of accidents including a Quebec crash that killed [...]

SOFA urges diligence in late winter conditions

Representatives of the SMART Transportation Division’s Switching Operations Fatality Analysis Working Group (SOFA) urge railroad operating employees in northern states to exercise a heightened level of caution while working in late winter weather conditions.  Minnesota State [...]

NTSB to hold forum on crude oil, ethanol by rail

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a two-day public forum next month on the safety of moving crude oil and ethanol by rail, the agency said Thursday. The NTSB has been warning for years that a common type of railroad tank car, known as the DOT-111, was not sui [...]

2014 Campaign for Jobs Conference Was the Biggest Yet

Never before has the Northern California Sheet Metal Workers’ Local Union No. 104 seen such a vast mobilization of members as it did on Saturday, March 1st in Livermore, California. The 2014 Campaign for Jobs Conference hosted over 500 dedicated members who are willing to fig [...]

Canada reports crude oil as explosive as gas

TORONTO — The crude oil that exploded during a fatal derailment in Quebec last year that killed 47 people had characteristics similar to that of unleaded gasoline, a highly flammable liquid, Canada’s transportation safety agency said Thursday. The Transportation Safety [...]

One Minute In the Life of A Sheet Metal Worker

A video utilizing stop-motion animation by  Evan Orlando, a sheet metal apprentice at Local 16 in Portland, Oregon.  According to John Candioti, Local 16 Business Manager, “the video helps explain layout so much that the School Boards we invite to our Training Center fo [...]

Let’s make effort to move more freight by rail

Last month, President Obama announced an initiative to improve the fuel efficiency of trucks. That’s a lofty goal, but here’s an even better idea: Let’s make an effort to move more freight by rail and less by road. Trains are far more energy-efficient than trucks – and they a [...]

Clean sweep of NJT's top brass continues

The shakeup of NJ Transit’s upper management is becoming a clean sweep. In the same week that Jim Weinstein’s four-year tenure as NJ Transit’s executive director officially ended, his directors of rail and bus operations, Kevin O’Connor and Joyce Gallagher, are being forced o [...]